A few days ago, it was my sister’s birthday. Well, the first year that she lived with us, we didn’t celebrate her birthday that day. We were given the wrong information from DSS, and we celebrated her birthday a few days later than we should have.

I think it is really interesting that a first experience for something, such as a birthday, might not always be enjoyed correctly. There are so many cases that caseworkers are handling at any given time, and unfortunately, some information can be misconstrued when they are filling foster parents in on their new child’s situation. I don’t necessarily think that it was our caseworker’s fault that we were given the wrong information for my sister’s birthday that first year, but sadly information was just mixed up at the time. Somehow the records were transferred incorrectly somewhere along the line, leaving the wrong birthday in the files.

If you think about it, getting information about a foster child is kind of like a grown-up game of Telephone. You know, where the story is correct at the beginning, but by the time the last person hears it, everything has changed? Instead of starting with something silly like, "The purple panda is petting the pony," and ending up with, "The pink palm is holding a penny," or something, our version of the game started with the correct birth date and ended with an incorrect one.

My sister turned three on the birthday that we messed up, so it’s not like it has left a large impact on her. We joke about the mix-up now that she’s older, and it has become a funny memory for all of us. But it does make me realize that there could be information that we are given incorrectly at any time, so it’s always good to have facts double-checked.

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About

My family has been doing foster care since I was three years old. I'm the only biological child in my family, though I now have five permanent siblings. Having nineteen siblings over the course of my lifetime has been an incredible experience, and I'm hoping that by sharing some of the ups and downs of being the only bio kid in a foster family, other foster families or people looking into doing foster care will be able to learn a bit of what life can be like. I also like to share what life is like on my journey to becoming a published author, as well as where my schooling and career choice are taking me.